The present invention relates to use of short messages, of the kind provided by a digital radio communication network, in connection with providing access to stored digital data over the digital radio communication network.
Today there exist a number of examples of message based services that are provided in accordance with certain standards in digital communication systems. Examples of such services are SMS (Short Message Service) and USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) in the digital radio communication network GSM. Similar message based services exists, or will exist, in other existing or future digital radio communication networks, such as GPRS, CDMA, D-AMPS (IS-136), PDC (Pacific Digital Cellular), W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) and UMTS/IMT-2000.
These message based services of different digital radio communication networks are normally used for transferring text information to be presented on the display of a receiving mobile station, but also for transferring text or data to be interpreted by a receiving mobile station in different ways. Thus, these message based services are also being used as a basis for providing different new types of supplementary services.
An example of the use of a message based service for providing a new type of service is described in International Publication No. WO 97/08906. In WO 97/08906 it is disclosed how messages of a message based service, such as the SMS service of a GSM network, are used for transferring agents from a server to a mobile communication station. The server transmits an SMS message with an agent to a mobile subscriber upon receipt of an e-mail addressed to that subscriber. The agent includes coded information instructing the mobile subscriber, or rather a software implemented client function in a mobile station or its connected computer, how to initiate a particular action with respect to the e-mail, such as retrieving the e-mail from the server in order to display it. Thus, a transferred SMS message and its agent is associated with an e-mail and is used to notify a user of a mobile communication station that an e-mail has been received. In addition to enable a mobile subscriber to read an e-mail, the service provides a number of other options for how the e-mail can be accessed, such as deleting it, forwarding it to a fax or another mobile subscriber etc.
The prior art described above requires that specific software, such as the client function, needs to be designed and included in the mobile station or its connected computer in order to implement the service.
A disadvantage is furthermore that the described agent transferred to the client function occupies space in the payload of the SMS message. Since the SMS message payload typically is limited to 160 characters, this will limit the available space for other kind of information, such as e-mail header information.
An object of the present invention is to provide a simplified way for a mobile user to access stored digital data over a digital radio communication network.
According to the present invention, this and other objects are achieved by a method, a method of using a data space and a computer-readable medium incorporating the features as defined in the appended claims.
The present invention is based on the idea of using the address data space of short messages for communicating identifying information between an application and a mobile communication station over a digital radio communication network which provide its mobile subscribers with a short message based service. Identifying information is transmitted to a mobile communication station in the originating address data space of a short message. At a later stage, when the mobile station responds to the short message, the received originating address will constitute the destination address and the identifying information will be returned from the mobile station in the destination address data space of the responding short message.
According to a first aspect of the invention, a method at a server is provided in connection with enabling a mobile communication station to access digital data stored by the server. The method includes the steps of: assigning an identifier to a particular piece of stored digital data; initiating transmission of a short message to said mobile communication station by using a short message service provided by said digital radio communication network, wherein said identifier is provided to be included in an originating address data space of said short message; extracting said identifier from a destination address data space of a short message received from said mobile communication station; and identifying to which piece of stored digital data access is requested based on the extracted identifier.
According to a second aspect of the invention, the invention provides method of using a data space, which is designated for addressing information in a short message, for bi-directional communication of identifiers with a mobile communication station. The method uses an originating address data space of a transmitted short message for transmitting an identifier to said mobile communication station, and a destination address data space of a received short message for extracting an identifier received from said mobile communication station.
According to a third aspect, a computer-readable medium is provided which includes computer-executable components for enabling a general purpose computer to perform the basic steps of the method in accordance with the first aspect.
The invention makes use of so-called sub-addressing in a short message node, i.e., the node designed to transmit and route short messages within the digital radio communication network providing the short message based service. Each application which communicates with this node for using the short message service will within the address space of the node have a main account with a unique address. The identifier is transmitted by the application to the mobile communication station by initiating transmission of a short message in which the originating address is composed of the unique main account address followed by a suffix which is equal to the identifier. A receiving mobile communication station may then return the identifier to the application by replying to the received short message, wherein the originating address, i.e., the main account address+suffix, will become the destination address of the responding short message. The short message node will then route the responding short message to the application based on the main account address. Upon reception of the responding short message, the application extracts the suffix from the destination address of the short message. Since the suffix is equal to an identifier, a corresponding piece of stored digital data can be identified by the application.
Preferably, the short message transmitted to the mobile communication station by an application on a server is used for notifying the mobile station""s user of the presence of the stored digital data. Typical digital data stored by the server is data received from a network connected to the server, e.g., the Internet.
Advantageously, the server is a mail server and the digital data is an e-mail received by the server from an external network, which e-mail is stored in a mailbox administrated by the mail server.
One of the advantages with the present invention is that a user may respond to received information that identifies a piece of stored data by using a simple reply-function provided by his mobile communication station. The user does not have to take explicit measures for returning this information, such as entering the identifying information manually. Neither does the user have to have a mobile station equipped with specific hardware or software which more or less automatically enables the identifying information to be returned.
Another advantage is that the invention avoids the necessity of communicating identifying information in the payload of the short messages. Instead the data space designated for addressing information in a short message is used for this communication. Thus, the full payload data space, which in a short message has a limited size, such as 140 bytes (corresponding to 160 characters using 7-bit coding) in an SMS message, can be used for transferring user data.
Furthermore, since it is preferred to identify stored digital data based on a combination of a mobile subscription number extracted from the originating address of a responding short message and the extracted identifier, the identifier only has to be unique within a specific storage area, such as a mailbox, and can therefore be defined to have a limited size.
It is to be understood that what is meant by the expression mobile communication station in this document is either a stand-alone RF (Radio Frequency) transceiver having processing capabilities and displaying means, such as a mobile telephone or a hand-held PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), or, a RF transceiver together with any kind of portable or stationary equipment having processing capabilities, such as a portable laptop computer or a stationary personal computer, wherein the RF transceiver is arranged in communication with the portable or stationary equipment.
In the following description of an exemplifying embodiment, the digital radio communications network is exemplified with the GSM network and the message based service with the SMS service provided by the GSM network. However, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to these systems, but can also be applied to other existing or future digital radio communication networks having message based services of a similar kind, such as the digital radio networks GPRS, CDMA, D-AMPS (IS-136), PDC (Pacific Digital Cellular), W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) and UMTS/IMT-2000.
Furthermore, even though the exemplifying embodiment will refer to the access of e-mail, its is to be understood that the present invention is applicable in connection with access of any kind of digital data stored by a server. Thus, the invention is for example applicable in any situation where there is a need to identify different digital data when pushing it put to a user, wherein the user with his mobile communication station can respond and access the digital data which is of interest.
The above mentioned and further features of, and advantages with, the present invention, will be more fully understood the following description.